


Blindsided Redux

by hallsigns



Category: 21 Jump Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Crimes & Criminals, Diane Nelson (21 Jump Street), Doug McQuaid, F/M, McQuaid Brothers - Freeform, Tommy McQuaid, Tommy McQuaid/Diane Nelson - Freeform, what if
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:15:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28107645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallsigns/pseuds/hallsigns
Summary: What if the McQuaid brothers were real? And Diane Nelson had asked the real bad boy Tommy McQuaid to off her father for her? This is what happens when these two characters meet under different circumstances.Mentions of rape and sexual abuse of a minor. Not explicit in regards to those warnings.
Relationships: tommy mcquaid/diane nelson
Kudos: 8





	1. It Began with a Fight

**Author's Note:**

> I largely will be keeping the story intact but will try to push things in a way that works for a teen Tommy McQuaid and his brother Doug McQuaid to still be put in most of the same situations. 
> 
> For the McQuaid Brothers, Hah!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just another day for the McQuaid Brother, HAH!

Friday – 8:15 am – West Union High School Student Parking Lot

“Okay, so we can’t hurt them too bad. You’re on probation still, but we gotta win. We can’t hurt em… well maybe we can hurt em just a little bit,” says Doug McQuaid while jabbing the open air with his fists. 

Doug and his brother Tommy were currently making their way through the back-school parking lot towards an early morning rendezvous. 

“This is crazy! We’re going to school early to fight,” complains Tommy, “This is ridiculous!"

“What Mr. “I served 18 months for manslaughter” is worried about a little fight?!” exclaims Doug. 

“I like my beauty sleep!” retorts Tommy. 

Doug replies to his brother, “No one can think we are pussies, man! We have too much riding on our next buy.”

“I know, I know…” says Tommy trailing off as him and his brother walk up the back stairs of the parking lot to the basketball courts.

“We are the McQuaid brothers,” continues Doug finishing his statement with a small “Hah” and a fist pump, “we are rougher, tougher. We buy better drugs.”

“Alright,” says Tommy still agitated at his older brother for waking him up before dawn to get to school of all places, “let’s buy some better drugs and get out of dad’s fucking apartment. Three weeks is getting kind of old…”

“Today an ounce, tomorrow a kilo,” argues Doug waving his hand to make his point, “step by step.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” a grumpy Tommy replies, “and by midterms, we can meet the President of Columbia.”

“What the college or the country?” asks Doug. 

“What..?” replies Tommy staring at his idiot brother in disbelief.

Upon entering the over-crowded student quad Doug announces, “Hey there they are Poncho. You take the little one, okay?” 

“The little one?” questions Tommy as his brother shrugs off his jacket. Tommy's confusion probably has to do with the fact that neither of the jocks were particularly little. 

Tommy once again looks at this brother in disbelief as Doug mid shrug rams himself into one of them, leaving the taller but perhaps not smaller one to him. Doug always liked a good fight, unlike Tommy. Tommy was more feared, though, and ready to go. He was a bull in a fight after being conditioned from months of looking out for himself in juvey. 

Tommy rushes forward with a kick towards the jock to get him on the ground and punch his face in. Tommy looks over to find his brother is pretty much the same situation easily overpowering his opponent. A crowd of students surrounds the fight egging the boys on. 

The boy fighting Doug gets him off him only for Doug to grapple quickly onto the ground and back onto his feet. Just as Doug starts to wail on the guy’s midsection the fight is broken up by some of the teachers. A teacher pulls Doug off the other student, as Tommy finishes his fight by landing a knockout punch, which he is sure will leave the big preppy jock with a nasty shiner. Tommy goes stand up to go by his brother’s side. 

One of the teachers confronts Doug asking, “What’s going on?” 

Tommy smirks and wipes his mouth, while his brother replies, “Nothing! Just looking for some spare change.” 

Tommy continues with, “Yeah, and we were going to buy one of those metal detectors, too.”  
The teacher says, “Why don’t you try looking in your homeroom instead?” as he pushes both brothers out of the open-air quad. 

“Relax, man, they started it, you know,” argues Doug, always wanting to have the last line, as both brothers walk off the quad to their next meetup. 

Tommy catches the eyes of Diane Nelson on his way off the quad. The too pretty and perfect junior girl looks to want to say something to the younger McQuaid brother. 

“No one thought you would show,” Diane calls out. 

As he pasts her, Tommy flips around to face her walking backwards into the school building, “We had to. We are the McQuaid brothers.” 

His reply comes with a sneer that should tell the little Joanie to stay away, but his eyes give Diane mixed feelings as he eyes her up and down. 

The McQuaid brothers continue their way into school but both hurriedly walk in the opposite direction of their homeroom. Stopping outside of a bathroom after first bell rings, Doug and Tommy share a look before swinging the restroom door open with a loud shared and dramatic, “Hello!”

Both boys walk into the tiled room. 

Doug exclaims, “Okay everyone out,” as he starts pulling boys out of the stalls, while his brother pushes boys off the urinals with a “Hey, you're big boys, you can wait till next period.” 

“Hey if you cross your legs and lean forward you might make it through math class,” quipped Doug while turning to face their dealers, Elie and Birch.

Tommy does one more sweep of the room and closes the entrance door before turning around himself and throwing a roll of bills to Elie. 

Their other dealer, Birch, says, “Suddenly there’s a reason to get here for first period.” 

Doug cheerfully smiles in return, while Tommy watches Ellie count the money.

Ellie looks up and happily states, “1500 bucks!”. 

Birch nods his head and pulls the packaged ounce from his jean pocket. As he throws the drugs to Doug, Elie says, “You’re are gonna buy us a condo.” 

As Doug catches the bag and stashes it, while Tommy watches the two goons. 

Elie pockets the cash in his jean jacket, while Birch continues the conversation, “What was it? A gram, then an 8 track, now an ounce. What next?” 

Doug shares a look with his little brother before replying with, “How about half a key?”

Elie in surprise replies, “Half a key?”

Doug looks the kid in the eye while Tommy watches on. 

The dealers swallow hard while sharing a look. Birch carefully replies, “Yeah, we can handle half a key.” The redheaded Elie looks down at his feet for second before looking up and nodding towards their customers. 

Doug replies with, “Good,” seemingly relieved their ploy for more worked.

Tommy calmly looks towards his brother while stating, “Well I for one am very impressed. I mean these guys are not small-time.”

Doug plays along with a heavy and overexaggerated shake of his head. 

Tommy continues, “Okay, well as long as you guys can handle that kind of weight, what do you say about a whole key?”

Doug whips his face around to stare at his younger brother in disbelief. This was not the plan.

Elie shakenly runs his fingers through his red fringe and replies, “A key?”

Doug while still staring a hole through his brother’s skull starts replying, “Yeah as in 2.2 ounces” counting the numbers with his hand as he turns his face towards their suppliers once more and hypothetically asks, “Or haven’t you guys studied the metric system?” 

Birch replies with a smile and a nod, “I have.” 

Tommy questions, “Is that too hard for you guys to handle?” 

The dealers share another look, and Birch starts to respond before Tommy cuts him off. 

Tommy continues with his negotiation, “I don’t want you guys to feel like we’re cutting you off, but if you take us straight to your source, I think we can manage a finder's fee. Say ten percent?”

“Ten?” questions his brother.

Tommy cuts his eyes over to his brother. 

“Ten,” Tommy aggressively confirms. 

Doug just nods his head well past the point of wanting to take charge of this situation at all. The time to argue with his brother would be later after school. 

“Ten…?” the leather-clad Birch looks over to Elie looking lost with what that number would mean for them monetarily. After a few moments, he states, “$2500,” to his partner who responds with an enthusiast nod of approval. 

“$2500,” continues Tommy, “for doing nothing. Think about it.”

“Take your time,” Tommy says and then reconsiders with a shake of his head, “No, take an hour. Let us know.” 

Doug nods his head and gets ready to walk out with Tommy when a geeky sophomore walks in.

Tommy just glares at the kid and asks, “Are you crazy?”

A sophomore swallows hard and quietly states, “I had to go.” 

With a growl, Tommy pushes the kid out of the bathroom. 

He turns back to their suppliers. 

Birch states, “We'll talk it over.”

“Good,” replies Tommy as he walks out of the room. Doug takes one last look at the other boys before following his brother out into the hall. The scared sophomore is long gone. Doug grabs Tommy’s arm, but Tommy shrugs his brother’s hand off. 

“Later, let’s get their response, and we can talk after school,” Tommy says while walking and staring ahead. 

With a shake of his head, Doug responds, “Fine, but you’re going to be the one to bring this up to him.”

Tommy just nods his head and walks on towards his first-period class.

* * *

Elie slips a note to Doug during class change while he was on the way to their second period. The note just has a simple “Yes,” written on it. Doug quickly discarded the loose-leaf paper note into a ball while giving the thumbs up to Tommy. Tommy just smirks in return. After second period, the boys have separate classes. They shared lunch but they could not really talk at school. They knew better than to do that, so Doug just stewed on the early morning bathroom exchange all day. 

Tommy almost regretted his plan once he was alone in his car with Doug. 

Upon entering the car, Doug slammed the door and did not even have the decency to look alarmed at manhandling Tommy’s precious ’68 Camaro. 

As Tommy puts the car in gear, Doug starts complaining, “Why did you have to go and up it to a whole key?” 

Tommy replies, “Because he looked like he was going to be able to handle half of one himself, and we wouldn’t have ever gotten up the ladder.” 

“It was a bluff,” exclaims Doug, “It looked like he had to go to the bathroom.”

“We were in the bathroom,” retorts a smiling Tommy as he navigates his car out of the student parking lot. 

“This is not going to go over well with Fuller. We aren’t going to be able to cover the buy,” states Doug.

Tommy just shakes his head while pulling out of the parking lot onto the parkway, “Let me worry about Fuller. I’ve got this Doug.”

Doug looks at Tommy in disbelief. Sometimes the older McQuaid forgot just how much Tommy had changed after being inside for so long without him. He rationalized that Tommy knew Fuller better. If they did finish their deal, then they could be on their own – finally. 

Tommy continued driving to the agreed-upon meeting location, an old, abandoned chapel downtown that he and Doug had stayed at more than once in the past when things got too bad at home. It was safe.

After pulling into the lot next to the chapel. The brothers exited and carefully surveyed their surroundings. While Doug had used the building semi-regularly in the past few months before Tommy paroled out, neither one of them fully expected the location to remain unused. Local homeless, junkies, and runaways were known to squat in it occasionally. They did not care as long as it remained empty when they used it. Neither one of them noticed anything off about the windows or the door at the top of the stairs. After looking back at each other, they quickly bounded up the steps taking two at a time before entering the building. 

The sun was still shining through the stained glass of the open sanctuary, as Tommy made his way down to some cardboard boxes under tarping. They were using this place for some storage. Doug walked up to a cleared table and pulled out their buy from earlier. He quickly pulled on some gloves and moved to start cutting it up, while Tommy sorted through a box for something or another he wanted. This was the only place other than his car that Tommy kept stuff. It was safe from his father. 

After a few minutes, Doug looked back over to Tommy who looked to be staring at a photo of his mom.

Doug sighed out loud before quipping, “You know these drugs aren’t going to cut themselves up.” 

Tommy quickly jerked the photo back into the box before pulling a bound journal and pocketing it. He then grabbed some bags and gloves and then walked up to his brother with a, “Yeah, yeah, move over.” Tommy quickly pulled on some gloves and helped to finished repackaging the ounce into smaller bags. 

After about 10 minutes, the boys heard a car pull up the chapel. After sharing a look, Doug pulled off the gloves and swiftly walked up the entrance. 

They waited. After a moment, four quick succession knocks sounded. The McQuaids shared a sigh of relief before Tommy moved to stand in front of the table, gloves still on. Doug opened the door wide for their boss, Fuller. 

Fuller was an OG who had made his stones in New York City during the 60’s and 70’s. After the fires burned Harlem a decade ago, he moved to Chicago to build himself back up. He was looking to expand currently. In reality, he was always looking to expand. Tommy had gained the opportunity to assist via his last cellmate, Fuller’s nephew. 

Fuller walked up to Tommy and started surveying the boy’s process. Once Doug walked up, he asks, “Everything went as planned?”

“Yes,” states Tommy.

Doug interrupts, “Yeah, except Sonny Crockett here upped us to a whole key and $25 grand.”

Fuller calmly replies, “That’s fine.” 

Surprised by his nonchalance, both boys look bewildered at the taller man. 

“I’ll get it packaged to you in fifties. Demand it to be somewhere public in neutral territory.” 

Still, in disbelief, Doug asks, “You’re going to get us $25 grand?”

Fuller responds, “You have a problem with your hearing McQuaid?!”

“No,” responds Doug quickly, not looking to make waves. 

“Alright, my crew will be watching, and my cops will just plan to stumble upon you. If anything goes wrong my crew will have your back. I will get you bailed out the next day. Don’t say anything and my lawyer will make sure the charges don’t stick to you boys at all,” states Fuller.

“And then finally the McQuaid brothers will be on our way!” exclaimed Tommy while going for their signature handshake. Both boys yell “Hah” at each other before exchanging shoulder pushes and some punches. 

Fuller looked down at the two teens he was entrusting this power grab with, before smiling, “You guys did well. Soon you will have all West Union high to yourself as territory. Just cool your jets on doing anything else for the next few weeks until after those witless dealers and their supplier have their indictments handed down.”

The McQuaid brothers both nodded and moved to finish packaging their latest buy, while Fuller made his way out of the safehouse. 

At the same time, elsewhere in Chicago, Diane Nelson is making her own play.


	2. Conning Authority

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We're the McQuaid Brothers! HAH!"

Diane Nelson the picture-perfect definition of an American teenage girl. She got good grades. She came from an upper-middleclass family. She wore fresh pressed designer clothes with soft cashmere cardigans carefully tied around her shoulders. 

At this very moment though, you could find Diane conning her way into the student record files.

Diane sighs to herself as she walks into the principle’s office of the administrative office. She quietly steps up to the secretary’s desk. 

“Hey Diane, how are you? To what do we owe this pleasure?” asks the principles’ secretary, Mrs. Belsen. 

Diane leans down and smiles at Mrs. Belsen, “One more college. I know I should make up my mind,” Diane continues her statement while spinning and walking up to the filing cabinets on the opposite wall, “Can I just Xerox my letter of recommendation? Mr. Harris already let me read it, anyhow.” 

Diane has already opened the draw where she knew her file was stored alphabetically alongside the rest of the junior class’s permanent student records, when the secretary responds, “Oh, those files aren’t really open to students…”

Diane pauses her search of the files she wants and looks over to Mrs. Belsen with big eyes. After a beat, Mrs. Belsen replies, “Well you don’t look too dangerous.”

Diane turns back to the files. She could not believe her luck. Tommy McQuaid’s file sat right next to hers in the cabinet. She quickly pulls both records and moved over towards the copy machine which sat several feet away from the office and Mrs. Belsen’s view. 

“How’s your sister?” asks Mrs. Belsen. 

Diane quickly opens the file that was somehow double the size of her file and full of miss matched paperwork from several locations. While doing so she answers, “Oh Leslie’s great. She can’t wait till she is up here at the high school.”

She starts copying the pages she needs, hoping to work through these before the secretary notices anything different. 

“And your dad?” asks the secretary, “we missed him last week at the PTA meeting.”

Diane answers, “Oh that was my fault. It was his birthday, so we took him out to dinner.”

Diane sighs as she watches the machine work. She just hopes this paperwork answers her prayers, or more accurately the boy they are about does. 

* * *

Monday – 11:58am – a local diner 10-minute drive from West Union High

The McQuaid brothers are sitting at a booth opposite their dealers waiting for the supplier to show. With the anticipation of the big deal at hand, all the boys had spread out, ordered drinks, and were silently while waiting. The brothers knew there was a chance this could still go sideways if the supplier put two and two together about who was funding these buys. 

It seems they had nothing to worry over though, as a guy in slick suit and gelled hair walked up to their booth. The man opens with, “Guys, so you’re the big wheeler-dealers.” 

He pulls up a chair and just nods his head, saying, “Alright, fine.” 

Doug looks the guy in the eyes and shrugs his shoulders, while Tommy continues to play with his lighter not even lifting his head up to match the supplier’s gaze. 

The still un-introduced supplier, that the McQuaids happen to know is called Gibb, lights a cigarette before asking, “What are you giving these guys?”

Doug replies, “Five percent finder’s fee.” 

Gibb exhales smoke onto the table before responding, “That’s a lie.” 

Doug exchanges looks with Elie and Birch, before the man continues, “But that’s okay. I don’t care.”

Tommy speaks up while continuing to play with his lighter, “You got something for us?” Upon asking the question, Tommy finally looks at the man. 

“I never carry anything other than my car keys,” says Gibb while looking over at his dealers, “They’ve got something for you.”

Tommy has already gone back to just playing with his lighter, while Doug raises his eyebrows towards Elie and Birch. Birch looks around the restaurant before pushing a paper bag of product between Doug’s knees under the table. At the same time, Doug pushes his own bag of cash towards Gibb under the table, while grabbing the cocaine and sitting it between his thighs. 

Tommy watches and looks up towards Gibb at the same time his brother asks, “Aren’t you gonna count it?”

Gibb looks the boys in the eye and responds, “If it’s not all there, I will kill you.” Both McQuaids share a hard look with the supplier. 

He continues, “So why should I count it?” 

Across the table from the brothers, their former dealers’ smirk at that statement. Elie’s smirk quickly falls as he looks past the brothers towards the entrance. 

“There are some cops that just walked in,” quietly states Elie. Both McQuaids quickly turn their heads sideways to get a look. 

“So what?” asks Gibb not even bothering to look over to the two uniformed officers that had walked into the dinner.

“They are here for lunch, just like us,” he continues to point out. 

The rest of table looks towards each other and try to act nonchalant. One of the cops makes eye contact with Doug before walking over to the table.

“Are you boys supposed to be off campus this time of day?” asks the cop.

Tommy looks up and confidently says, “We are honor roll students, sir, we get free time at lunch.”

“Next try,” replies the officer, “my kids went to West Union. There is no off campus.”

“Okay back to school,” the officer says while Eli and Birch try to hide their faces. 

They start standing up out of the booth, when the other officer stops Gibb, “You don’t look like you are going back to school.”

Gibb replies, “Oh, no sir, I’ve already finished my education process.” 

Then the first cop grabs Doug’s arm as Tommy is starting to stand up. “Oh woah, woah, you bring your lunch here?” he asks spotting the paper bag Doug had in his hand. 

“What’s in the sack?” asks the cop.

Doug looking to make this go down faster gets in the officer’s face, “What you got a warrant?”

“A warrant?!” exclaims the cop before he pickup up Doug by his shirt collar.  
The cop continues to hold up Doug, slightly choking the boy, before stating, “I have probable cause to open your caninum just looking at you kid.” 

He quickly slams Doug down onto the table in front of Tommy. Tommy puts his hands up to make to go as smoothly as possible. The cop pushes Birch and Elie back into the booth before moving to pull their buy out of the paper lunch sack. 

The other cop has grabs Gibb and has slammed him into the counter.

Tommy with wide eyes watches from his spot in the booth and looks around at the chaos around him. He has the perfect view of Gibb as he is patted down and cuffed. He can see the other diner patrons freak out and the waitress shriek as dishes crashed to the floor. He watches as his brother lies still on the table while the cop cuts into a kilo of white powder on the table. He looks on as Elie and Birch stare wide eye at the cop.


	3. A Girl with a Propostition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diane finally approaches Tommy McQuaid...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♩ We never thought we'd find a place where we belong  
> Don't have to stand alone, we'll never let you fall. 𝅘𝅥𝅯

Tuesday – 10:22 am – West Union High Front Lobby Entrance

Diane stands by in the administration office contemplating a plan to steal a glance at today’s attendance records. After working as an office aid last semester, she knows that they are turned in by homeroom teachers by the end of second period. Her current, probably ill-advised, plan is to offer to organize them. 

Just as she was about to go into the main office, she heard some boys from her class talking, “I heard there were cops everywhere.” 

“Thirty cops and drug dogs and a whole SWAT team,” the other boy replied. 

“SWAT team?” questioned the first one. 

“They had to. Tommy McQuaid always carries a gun. He killed someone once.” 

“He shot a cop?!” exclaimed the first boy in disbelief. 

The other boy casually replies, “I don’t know, but you know how when they say the smoke clears… do you know how bullets have to be fired for there to be smoke like that.” 

Suddenly the front doors of the school swing open with slam. 

“Hello!” comes the yell of the McQuaid brothers. 

“What’s the matter? You guys ever heard of bail?” asks Tommy as onlookers look at them in surprise and fear. 

“Watch they give us detention for being in jail,” exclaims Doug as him and his brother walk down the hallway.

“But Mr. Harris we couldn’t come to class we was in jail,” quipped Tommy. 

“Yeah!” yells Doug in agreement.

Diane quietly looks down the hallway to the retreating backs of the McQuaid brothers and worries her bottom lip. Looks like Tommy McQuaid is at school today after all.  


* * *

Tuesday – 12:03 pm – West Union High cafeteria

“Weeks of school with nothing to do but schoolwork,” complains Tommy as they walk through the cafeteria looking for an empty table.

“Yeah, but you are forgetting,” starts Doug and together they finish, “We are the McQuaid brothers! Hah!”. 

“Go away,” Tommy states to a little nerdy Sophomore sitting by themselves at a table. 

The kid immediately gets up, but before he goes Doug simply demands, “Give me your jello,” making the kid immediately drop his orange jello onto the table before leaving. 

Both boys sit down before Tommy brings up their former conversation again, “This is a waste of time. We should just bunk off today after spending the night in jail. We are doing nothing but school for the next few weeks. I hate doing nothing!”

Tommy in rage pushes his lunch tray to the side and works on opening his chocolate milk.

“Yeah, but it’s fun,” Doug replies in jest while tossing a questionable part of his school lunch at a dumb sophomore further down the table, striking them directly on their forehead. 

Tommy goes to respond, when pretty little Diane Nelson sits down in front of them. Both boys look at her in disbelief while she says, “Hi,” in response.

Doug asks her, “Does your momma know you here? You know you could get diseases sitting here talking with us?” 

In response, she moves her gaze solely to Tommy. 

Doug shares a side-eye look with his brother before stating, “Yeah, well I’m going to go get some tartar sauce.” Doug stands up and walks away to give Tommy time alone with Diane. 

Tommy looks at the Diane once more before sighing and starting to shake up his milk. 

“Alright, Diane, what do you want?” Tommy asks her while staring her down. 

“I can just talk to you minute?” Diane pleas.

“Yeah, what do you want? The low down for the big bust? Gonna write an editorial for the school paper?!” Tommy asks sarcastically while smirking at the naïve girl. 

Diane looks him straight in the eyes states, “You really did the things people said you did. I know that.”

Tommy averts her look and questions coolly, “What are they saying?”

“I know they are true,” Diane continues to say almost stumbling over her words.

Tommy stares at her blankly, not sure what to make of the girl in front of him. 

She gapes at him at response. She clearly had not thought this through enough.

Doug returns to his seat with tartar sauce and more probably stolen jello to sit next to his brother. 

With the return of his brother, Tommy takes the opportunity to request, “Why don’t you hit the road Diane?” 

Diane slowly gets up with her lunch tray and leaves the boys alone at the table. Clearly missing her chance to discuss what she wanted to with Tommy McQuaid. 

“You are finally finding it aren’t you?” Doug asks his brother. 

“What?” asked an annoyed Tommy after taking a sip of his chocolate milk. 

Doug continues to eat some jello, before answering, “That being a low life works especially with them Girl Scout types you always go for.” Tommy grins to himself. His brother wasn’t wrong. He doubted very much a girl like Diane Nelson would have approached him before his last trip to Juvie that finally put him over the time served by his older brother. Hell, Tommy McQuaid was already almost up to the time served of their deadbeat father.

His brother continued, “You want to get dogged in this world, you got to be a dog. Think about it…” Doug punctuated his statement by shoving an entire green jello container into his mouth.  


* * *

Tuesday - 3:28 pm – West Union High parking lot

Tommy had left school in a hurry to beat out the light shower that was quickly turning into heavy downpour. He had just managed to make it to his blue Camaro and park in front of the back entrance, so his brother would be able to run into the car without getting too wet or more accurately not get his car’s interior too wet. After a few moments of waiting and letting the car warmed up, his car door opened to who he thought was his brother. 

Looking over, Tommy had to roll his eyes at Diane, surprised she had the nerve to continue to seek him out.

Too annoyed to even check out the girl who managed to get soaking wet despite have an umbrella with her, Tommy just glared at her and with an annoyed voice stating, “That’s my brother’s seat. 

Unable to look at him, Diane stares at her lap while saying, “I need to know if it’s true that you killed someone.” 

In disbelief that a girl that seemed so innocent would ever want to know the answer to that particular question, Tommy chooses to give a non-answer, “Let’s say that it is, which is even more reason not to be here.”

Diane finally managing to look at the more serious McQuaid brother asks, “Would you be able to do it again?”

“I don’t know. I suppose if I had to,” Tommy answers honestly after searching for the answer. “Why? What’s up?”, he asks in response honestly curious about this girl’s reasoning. 

Looking down at her lap again while thunder roars outside she continues her questioning, “Would you do it for money?”

Tommy just shakes his head while looking ahead. “Diane, I don’t think you want to do this,” he states. 

“I have $1700 saved up. All I want to know is if you will kill someone. You’ve done it before,” continues Diane.

Getting mad at her gall, Tommy looks towards her again and demands for her to give a reason, “What’s the matter Diane? Did someone give you a hard time in study hall? Give it a couple of days. It will past.”

With wet eyes she responds, “I have $1700 saved. It’s all I have. I want to give it to you if you’ll kill my father.” 

Tommy turns his face to meet her eyes for the first time since she sat in his car. Disbelief and concern written on this face. 

Tommy’s mouth wide open and staring at her, Diane continues to state, “Look I can bring the money tomorrow.” 

Following this last statement, she grabs her umbrella and exits the Camaro, leaving Tommy McQuaid to stare at his lap and wonder how perfect little Diane could have a home life so difficult to want her own dad dead. Tommy’s home life had mostly always been shit, but even he had not premediated killing his own father.


	4. Keep Your Noses Clean

Tuesday – 8:55 pm – 21 Jump Street Chapel

Later that night, the McQuaid brothers sat in their abandoned hide-away on Jump Street drinking beers. 

Doug had been talking Tommy’s ear off about some underground club he wanted to check out this weekend, while Tommy nursed his second brew. Tommy was too preoccupied from his earlier conversation with Diane Nelson. Knowing what he knew there were only so many reasons a girl would hopefully want to kill their father… and all of them made the youngest McQuaid’s stomach turn. 

There was a knock of four quick successive pounds at the door to the chapel. Still full of too much energy, Doug quickly jumped up to let Fuller into the room. 

Grinning at the delinquent duo, Fuller announced, “You did good. I have word from my paid pigs that the DA will be charging the dealers and their supplier Gibb. This will open up all of West Union High and the community for your sales.” 

Both brothers nod in agreement with their boss before Doug opens a new bottle and offers it to Fuller. 

Waving him off, Fuller responds, “I’m good. I just wanted to come by to check-in. Stay low and watch your backs for the next few weeks. Don’t get caught doing anything until this indictment sticks. If Gibbs finds out what truly went down, then he will kill you.” 

With serious faces, the brothers continue to nod in agreement. 

In response, Doug asks, “This is good for business, too. Let the market dry up. Without Gibb supplying there will be no one selling until we start back.”

Smirking, Fuller replies, “Exactly. I will have a connect to run product to you guys once you are truly in the clear. Keep your noses clean boys,” and with that, he was already walking out the door.

* * *

Wednesday – 4:08 am – Small Walk-up Apartment somewhere in Downtown Chicago

Hours later, Doug awoke from the noise of Tommy flipping his lighter on and off from his bed on the opposite side of their shared bedroom. 

Doug was a relatively light sleeper, but Tommy almost never missed the chance to sleep… getting him up in the morning was never easy. 

Tommy had that bound notebook of his open but was staring out the window while continuing to flip the lighter unaware he had woken his brother up. 

“Tommy, what is up with you? Woah man, it must be late…” Doug says while sitting up to grab the half-empty bottle of soda on his bedside table. 

Tommy looks over in the dark room, with the shadows from the streetlight shading his face, and asks his brother in much the same way Diane had earlier that day, “Can I talk with you? I really got to talk with you.”

Wiping the sleep from his eyes and placing the now empty soda bottle back onto the table, Doug wearily asks, “What time is it?” 

Tommy looks down at his watch and replies, “It’s almost four.” 

Doug continues to blink his eyes awake.

“Can we talk?” Tommy asks like when they were little kids telling secrets in the dark. 

“Yeah, I’m up,” answers Doug. 

“No man, can I really talk to you?” Tommy asks again. Doug stares out over at Tommy trying to catch his brother’s eyes… they had never kept secrets before. 

“Yeah, of course… you’re my brother,” the words come out of Doug’s mouth before he even has time to process the reality behind his brother’s odd questions.

“Right, of course,” mimics back Tommy.

More than just a little curious about his brother’s worries Doug responds, “What happened? What’d you do man?” 

“You know Diane Nelson?” asks Tommy.

“Mmm-hmm,” replies Doug in agreement.

Tommy stops flicking the lighter and looks over to Doug, “She, uh… she uh…”

“She uh, she uh what?!” an impatient Doug questions. 

Tommy in rush says, “She offered me $1700 to kill her father.” 

“She what?” Doug asks with incredulity. Of all the things Doug thought his little brother was going to cop to about the girl scout that had taken in interest in him – he had not expected that. 

Tommy just nods his face and bites down on his thumbnail looking even more like the little kid Doug remembered his 16-year-old brother once being.

“She asked you to murder?!” he exclaims into the darkness of their tiny bedroom. 

Tommy just closes his eyes and continues to nod. 

“Her father?!” Doug continues to question his brother.

Tommy nods again.

Standing up to tower over his brother he says, “What the hell Tommy? What did you say to that girl?” 

“Nothing! I didn’t ask for this,” responds Tommy finally sitting up. 

“Nothing he says…” Doug mumbles in continued disbelief looking down at Tommy.

“I swear,” continues Tommy.

“Was this at lunch?!” Doug asks.

“No! She didn’t have the nerve till this afternoon. We talked in the parking lot,” mumbles Tommy.

“In the parking lot…” Doug wonders aloud, “So in your car?!” he asks in disbelief. Tommy didn’t allow people in his car. Doug was honestly lucky to get the privilege despite driving around the vehicle for all the months Tommy had been in juvenile hall without him. 

Tommy responds, “Not my idea. She hopped in when I was waiting for you and not paying attention.” 

Doug continues, “Right so you’re telling me you aren’t interested in that girl in the least. You didn’t encourage this?”

“What?! No!” Tommy exclaims, “I didn’t encourage shit. Yeah, maybe I wouldn’t mind some alone time with her, but I don’t flirt with girls by offering to do commit felonies on their behalf.”

A beat of silence passes between the brothers. 

“So… what did you say?” Doug asks quizzically looking at his brother.

“What did I say…” Tommy sarcastically ponders while staring his brother down. “I didn’t know what to say. I’ve never been asked to pull a hit before. It came out of nowhere. That guy I killed before… that was circumstantial… I didn’t intend to kill anyone. I shot him in the foot for crying out loud?! We didn’t know that he would suffer a stroke on the way to the hospital!” 

Doug stares at his brother for another beat, while Tommy wraps his arms around his knees and buries his head between them. Sighing, Doug sits down on his brother’s twin bed to wrap his arm around his shoulders. 

“Fuck man I know. That shit wasn’t your fault,” Doug says, “I just don’t know how to respond to this shit… fucking knew that girl was trouble.”

Sitting up again and slumping back to rest his head onto the wall behind him and responds, “No shit.” 

Taking a deep inhale, Tommy looks at Doug and says, “Still don’t know why, man.”

Doug looking at Tommy asks, “Why what?”

Tommy shook his head, “Why she wants her dad dead? She wouldn’t say. Just kept repeating that she had $1700, and that I had already killed someone…” 

“So what?! You already have blood on your hands so what is a little bit more?” exclaims Doug, “Insensitive little bitch…”

“Fuck man, yeah I was pissed at her logic at first as well, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. What makes a girl like that… what did her dad do to her… to make her want to kill him…?” Tommy trails off.

“I fucking knew you liked her,” states Doug matter of factly.

“That’s not what this is about, she…” Tommy starts to say.

Doug cuts him off, “No. No fucking way. You do like her and this isn’t fucking happening. Stay away from her.” Doug stares his brother down and continues, “You heard Fuller. Keep our noses clean. I don’t care what is happening with Diane fucking Nelson. Stay away from her dude.”

“Doug, what if…” Tommy tries to respond.

“No, man. You just got out of juvie the month before last. We just got everything settled with Fuller. In a month or two we will be out of this shitbox apartment and away from our asshole father. Diane Nelson will be fine. She’s got a good family and money. Worry about yourself, Tommy.”

Standing up Doug walks back over to his bed and slips between the sheets clearly done with this conversation. 

With a loud sigh, Tommy lays back down and stares up at this ceiling. Tommy knows Doug is right, but he can’t help with find it impossible to not think of the wet Bambi eyes of Diane Nelson pleading with him to murder her father. It made his blood run cold and his imagination runs wild.


	5. Where is Her Mind?

Wednesday 9:55 am – West Union High – East School Wing

Tommy slowly walks down the hallway to wait outside Diane’s first period. Tommy had not been able to get Diane out of his head since their talk yesterday. The whole morning it had been looming over him as he had silently contemplated the situation, he found himself in. Doug had managed to avoid the topic on the way to school this morning, and his brother had kept his silence when he ducked out of their first period class 20 minutes ago.

Hearing the bell ring, Tommy waited for Diane to walk out before walking up to her. 

“Diane,” he greeted. 

“Tommy,” said a surprised Diane, “I have something for you if you want it…”

Tommy moved his gaze around the hall, before responding, “We can’t do it here.” 

He looked down at Diane, wondering if this girl with a pink ribbon in her hair, actually had a plan for this. Did she truly know what she was doing?

“Come on,” she responded urgently grabbing his attention in a direct stare. She quickly moved to a classroom with an open door a few feet away from them. 

Tommy walked in first, scanning the room only to turn around and find Diane shutting the door behind them. 

As Diane pulled down the blind on the window of the door, she explained, “Mrs. Braverly lets me use this room to study if I have an off period.”  
Diane walked over to the front desk in the room, while Tommy continued to walk around before quipping, “Well I guess being good has its advantages, huh?” 

Pulling out a thick white envelope, Diane simply states, “Here,” to Tommy. 

“Put that away,” says Tommy in a commanding voice. 

Exasperated, Diane exclaims back at him, “You said you would do it?!” 

He responds while walking up to the girl, “No, I never said I would do it. I never even said I’d think about doing it.” 

“Maybe I will and maybe I won’t,” continues Tommy as the anger melts from Diane’s face, leaving a sad frown in its place.

Looking Diane’s long face over, Tommy slowly says, “You can give me the money when the job is done. Okay?”

Diane quickly nods and says, “Okay.”

“Now Diane,” Tommy starts calmy and carefully, “I need to know why I am doing this.”

“What does it matter. I’m paying you?!” she says with stubborn fear. 

“Because it interests me, Diane,” Tommy responds while staring her down, “You want me to whack the guy. I kind of like knowing the idea why.

Diane quickly looks away from the boy in front of her to stare at her hands and the white envelope she had brought to school with her today. 

“Now,” he said continuing while walking towards her, “Is it money? Is he a hard guy? Does he beat you? You got bruises on those pretty little arms of yours?”

With wet eyes, Diane steps forward and waves the envelope at Tommy, “Just take the money.”

Tommy walks closer to stand right in front of her, “Look, nothing would say could surprise me. I’ve been around abuse my whole life. I’ve been to group homes, shelters, and jail. Just tell me, Diane. I can’t do what you are asking, without knowing.” 

“It doesn’t matter,” Diane argues back, “Either you are gonna do it or you’re not.” At this point, tears are streaming down her face. “It doesn’t matter. Maybe you aren’t as tough as they say you are,” she says with malice. 

“Maybe,” Tommy retorts with a nod of his head.  
“Maybe I don’t like the idea of going into this thing blind,” he says trying to reason with her. 

“I’m sorry,” she responds pleadingly, “I’m sorry. It’s the only way.”

Clearing not getting any further with her, Tommy sighs and says, “I’ll let you know.”

Gesturing to the envelope still clutched in her hands, “Keep an eye on that money. There are a lot of shady characters around here.” And with that Tommy walks out of the classroom leaving a tearful Diane Nelson behind with her pink ribbon still perfectly tied in her hair. He shuts the door just before she breaks down crying.  


  


* * *

  


Wednesday 3:23 pm – West Union High – Basketball Courts

Later that day found Tommy waiting on info from Harry Ioki. A kid Doug trusted for intel on the landscape of West Union High. The guy knew his shit weeks ago when the brothers needed sales and introductions after both transferring in to adhere to Tommy’s probation guidelines. Doug McQuaid was currently in detention for an incident involving some Sophomores and jello…

Ioki walked up to Tommy and pointedly asked, “So who is this girl to you?”

“It’s just a girl,” responds Tommy.

“Right. This doesn’t seem like something you would ask for McQuaid. Generally, I’m not one to help a guy in stalking a chick either,” Ioki states.

“Will you lay off Harry? What’s you got for me?” asks Tommy. 

“There really isn’t much to know. She’s an honor roll student. She’s in a bunch of extracellulars, sings in her church choir. Her sister is in junior high, ninth grade. She’s never been in trouble. Never had a boyfriend. Her mother passed away e a few years ago. Her father’s a cop.”

With a wince, Tommy asks, “He’s a cop?”

Ioki responds, “You didn’t know? Shit, that’s fucking hilarious.”

“Holy shit,” replies Tommy. 

“Who is she to you McQuaid? Really?” questions Ioki looking Tommy McQuaid in the eye.

Tommy shakes his head again, “Just a girl.” 

Ioki sighs and says, “Okay man. Let me know if you need anything else. Preferable not stalker shit.”

Tommy rolls his eyes before stating, “This isn’t what’s this is about,” and with that, he walks off. 

Ioki stares at the departing back of the younger McQuaid brother in disbelief before walking off back to the student quad. 

  


* * *

  


An hour later, Tommy is waiting in the school parking lot for his brother. This time he isn’t harassed by Diane, and Doug manages to slip into the car. Doug starts in on how bored he is with school and their lack of work right now, “I mean how much longer can Fuller expect us to sit on our hands? I know it has only been a few days, but I’m going to go crazy…”

Cutting Doug off, Tommy says, “Look, man. We… I have to do something.”

Doug startled to be cut off by his younger quieter brother shoots him a glare. 

“What do you mean _you_ need to do something?” Doug asks Tommy accusatorily. 

Sighing, Tommy responds, “I talked with Diane…”

“Of course, you did,” Doug darkly mutters to himself.

“She wouldn’t tell me why she wants her father dead. She seemed…” Tommy paused before continuing, “…scared.” 

“Scared?” Doug asks.

“Yeah, scared? It didn’t sit right with me. I told her to keep the money. I talked with Harry…”

“You told Ioki about this?! Dude! You are off your…” Doug interrupts. 

“No, I didn’t tell him shit,” Tommy explains, “I asked for intel on her.”

Doug replies, “Yeah that is not suspicious at all…”

“Fairly certain he thinks I have the hots for her and plan on stalking her or some shit…”

“Hots, sure…” Doug agreed, mumbling to himself, “And some other shit you want to do to her… absolutely.”

Cutting his brother with a hard look, Tommy ends his brother’s ramblings with, “We have to go see Fuller.” 

Eying his brother, Doug nods his head, “Yeah okay. Don’t know how that’s going to help… maybe he can talk some sense into you.”


	6. Right Here Waiting

Stopping by the current offices of their boss was not advisable, but Tommy was determined to meet with Fuller today. After about 30 minutes of driving, the McQuaid brothers found them outside Fuller’s current front business. A nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The boys walked up to the doorway after parking in the mostly abandoned parking lot, before pushing in the doorbell. They heard a distant buzzing followed by the angry barks of a dog. 

Both brothers took a step back before a girl no older than them opened the door for them. She had a bat in one hand and was standing in front of a rather territorial large dog that was growling at them from between her thighs.

“McQuaids,” she says greeting them casually, “What are you doing here?”

Clearly, neither brother expected this black beauty to meet them at the door. They had met most of Fuller’s crew over the last few weeks but had somehow failed to meet this one.

After exchanging looks with each other briefly, Doug just replies, “We need to talk with Fuller. Something has come up.”

The girl looks them up and down, before grinning, “Well shit, this will be entertaining.”

She opens the door wide for them at the same time she says the command, “Chill boy!” The dog immediately cowers at her feet. 

She walks in and goes to the wooden desk that sits at the front of the large empty lobby and picks up the phone while the McQuaids walk in. Tommy quickly closes the door while Doug walks up to the desk all the while eyeing the now calm hound.

“Yes, they say that they need to talk with you,” she says speaking into the phone. 

“I don’t know why… hear let me just ask,” she continues talking on the phone before looking up to the boys in front of her. “Does Gibb know something? Did he try something?”

Doug quickly responds, “No, no, this isn’t about that.”

Quirking an eyebrow up at his words, she quickly relays the message to Fuller, “They say it has nothing to do with Gibb…. Yeah, they are still good regarding that…. Yeah, okay,” and with that, she hung up. 

“Okay, he said to go on back. Just try not to ruin his mood. He’s been in a good one since Gibb got locked up.”

Doug walked ahead, while Tommy responded, “Right, no promises…”

Tommy found Doug at the end of the long hallway his brother had walked down waiting at a reinforced steel door. With a sigh, Doug knocked on the door once Tommy caught up to him.

“Come in!” came a yell from within.

The boys walked in and found themselves in a large office with all the lights turned off and Fuller sitting in a wingback leather chair sipping a glass of amber liquid. 

“Sit down, sit down,” Fuller responding while waving at the large leather couch in front of the desk. Both boys followed the directions and had a sit.

A moment passed before Fuller arched an eyebrow at the two brothers in front of him.

With a swallow, Tommy starts, “Can I trust you?”

Pausing before answering, Fuller just says, “I don’t know.” 

Another pause passes before Fuller responds, “I don’t know you that well yet. You’ve done good work. You both have, but our relationship is still new…. Maybe you can, maybe you can’t.”

“Look this girl at school asked me to kill her father,” Tommy starts with a firmness in his voice. 

In a surprise, Fuller looks at Tommy straight on. 

“I don’t know what to do,” Tommy says with a hard seriousness that a 16-year-old should not hold, “This is new for me.”

“How did this happen?” Fuller asks calmly.

With a swallow, Tommy says, “The other day after we got on bail we went back to school. We were at lunch and she approached. She didn’t ask then, but she wanted to. I just don’t think she knew how yet…”

“It’s a good thing. That is not the time or place to discuss something like this,” Fuller replies.

“Exactly,” Doug says with an exasperated look to his brother. 

“I know,” Tommy responds, “She didn’t, no… doesn’t know better. She cornered me later on and asked me point-blank. $1700 to take out her old man.”

“Why?” asked Fuller.

“I don’t know. She won’t say why. I could guess a few reasons. Many of them very possible, but she refuses to say.”

“Is this everything?” Fuller asks staring down at both boys as he sets his drink down in front of him.

Doug starts to say, “Yes,” at the same time Tommy goes to say, “No.”

“What more?” he queries. 

Both brothers share a look before Tommy looks back at Fuller and states, “The girl’s father is a cop.” 

As Tommy says "cop", Doug lets out a disbelieving groan to himself. 

“Oh, this just gets better and better,” replies Fuller.

Tommy sits up and leans forward over Fuller’s desk, “Look there aren’t many reasons a girl like this would ask for something like this. Whatever her father has done will probably be enough for me to go off the deep end.”

“Ah hmm. Right, and who is this girl to you McQuaid?” responds Fuller.

“No one. I hadn’t talked with her before this week. She just a girl; a girl in trouble,” Tommy replies in return.

Fuller looks down at his glass before grabbing it and taking a sip and saying, “Alright McQuaid. You think this is something?”

A moment passes before Tommy quickly says, “Yeah, I do Boss.”

Fuller sighs before saying, “Maybe I got the juice to look into this and find out what is going on. I can call in some favors and see. Go talk to your girl and tell her that this is a no go. Tell her whatever you need to, but make her understand that you aren’t going to take a murder rap for her – understood?” 

“Yes Boss,” Tommy replies.

Fuller turns to look at Doug, “Good, now Doug – keep your brother in line and get out of my office.”

Both boys share one last look before walking out of their Boss’s office.

  


* * *

  


Thursday 1:28 pm – West Union High – Main Hallway

The next afternoon, finds Doug McQuaid walking down a school hall on the lookout for his brother. He had just got out of his 4th period and was supposed to meet up with Tommy before his big talk with Diane. They had both decided last night that Diane wouldn’t do well with Doug present. She had only really talked with Tommy up to this point, and this conversation wasn’t likely to go better than any of her previous interactions with the younger McQuaid. Doug suspected that Diane had a crush on Tommy, as well, and was hoping to bat her eyes at Tommy long enough for him to be he knight in shining armor. His goal in meeting up with Tommy beforehand was to reiterate to his well-meaning brother that he could not give Diane false hope that he was willing to murder her father.

Just as Doug was passing through a main intersection of the hall, the two meathead jocks he and his brother beat up last week walked in front of him. They quickly shoved the older McQuaid brother into a row of lockers. Doug just sat up and pushed off the lockers before barreling one of the idiot jocks into the bathroom across the way from him. The other jock followed, but in his anger at being waylaid Doug McQuaid was able to easily finish both off in minutes. 

A teacher walks into the restroom moments after he does. Looking at the teacher, Doug just responds, “I know, I know, got to go see the principal,” while standing off to the side of the two bloody and bruised guys at his feet, trying to stop the bleeding from his own nose.

“Perils of being a McQuaid,” Doug continues pushing his hair back a few times, before moving his hand back to nose checking to see if it was dislocated. 

The teacher looks at Doug and asks pointedly, “Where is McQuaid #2?”

“Good question,” Doug responds while licking the blood off his finger and walking out of the men’s room.

  


* * *

  


At this exact moment, one could find Tommy McQuaid standing outside of school near an abandoned entryway to the gym. He had slipped a note into the girl’s locker this morning. He hoped that the promise that he might have made up his mind regarding her hit job, that she would show.

A minute later, Tommy looks up to the side door opening to the stairs he was on, to find himself staring at Diane Nelson. 

She walked up to him, and after a few seconds passed, Tommy with conviction in his voice said, “Look Diane, I am going to have to turn you down.”

Diane quickly responded, “Would your brother do it?”

Without taking a beat to think about it, Tommy immediately replied with a shake of his head, “Not a chance.” 

“Is it the money?” she asked desperately, “If I got more money, could you do it?”

Just then a student walked and the side door behind Diane and hurriedly walked past them. They shuffled past the odd couple as Diane quieted down, and Tommy coolly looked on.

“I could maybe borrow some from someone or sell something,” Diane continued. 

Tommy looked into Diane’s eyes, and said with a sense of finality, “Look Diane, I’m just not gonna do it. Alright? It’s not happening!”

Diane sadly stares back at Tommy.

Tommy, not skipping a beat, continues, “And you aren’t equipped to do it, so why don’t you leave it alone…” 

Loudly interrupting him, Diane replies, “You’ll do it!”

Surprised at her outburst, Tommy continues to stare at Diane’s eyes. They were watering now.

With a sob in her voice, she continues to say “You said you’d do it. You said you’d do it…” 

Tommy not being able to help himself, takes another step further towards Diane, “Look, Diane, I…”

“Just go away!” she shouts at him. A different Tommy might have listened, but this Tommy McQuaid knew better. He stepped forward again and this time wrapped his arms around the now crying girl. 

Diane let out another cry and mumbled go away and tried to push him away with no real conviction before finally throwing her full weight into the arms of a boy she barely knew. 

Tommy shushed her, before saying, “Diane I don’t know what is going on here, but I’m here. I can’t do what you are asking… but I’m here.” 

They stood there for many minutes after that. Tommy holding his arms around the girl as she cried out all of the distress.


	7. Supermarket  Connection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support!

Meanwhile, at the other side of the school, McQuaid #1 is standing in the Principal’s office getting ready to be read the riot act. Meathead jock 1 and 2 were present and accounted for, too. 

“I don’t know why we let you back in here after your arrest Douglas,” opinioned the Principle sitting at his desk in front of his errant students. 

“It’s a little custom called innocent until proven guilty,” quipped Doug. 

“Perhaps,” replied the Principal sitting up in his seat, “But I’m beginning to think our halls would be safer without you in them.” 

“Halls, huh? Hey, I was just washing my hands when Moses and Max Mutant here decided to redecorate the bathroom. I was an innocent bystander who got in the way of their artistic frenzy,” Doug said explaining the situation.

“I find that hard to believe,” responded the Principal.

“He attacked us,” the goon to Doug’s left said while literally pointing a finger at him, “without warning.”

“I attacked the two of you,” Doug said slowly in response, “What am I stupid?”

“Enough!” shouts the Principal, then calmly states, “A week of detention for each of you,” while looking at the meatheads, and the points to Doug and says, “And two weeks for you.” 

Doug retorts, “Is that justice or arithmetic? There’s two of them, so they get a week apiece?” 

Principal stands up to his full height and looks at the lone McQuaid brother straight in the eye and asks, “How about three?”

“Well, it’s not what I had in mind,” Doug replies off-handedly. 

“Well, that’s what you got,” replies the principal. 

Suddenly, Doug McQuaid mouths shifts into a grin before leaning forward and kissing the forehead of the balding man in front of him. 

After school that day, we find the McQuaid brothers walking up the stairs to their small two bedroom flat they share with their asshole father when he decides to be in town. For the last two weeks he had been AWOL. 

“It’s wasn’t like I asked him to suspend me. It just happened,” Doug said explained. This was the third time Doug had gone through the story, and Tommy was still not buying it. He was sure Doug made this suspension happen.

“The only reason it got out of hand,” Doug said continuing, “was because I had to take on both of them and win.”

“And where were you?! Playing with Girl Scout’s cookies. Please tell you me you let her know that you’re done with her?” Doug asks his brother as he unlocks the apartment and walks up to the fridge to pull out the milk carton and take a deep chug. 

Tommy right behind him, walks in and closes and locks the door behind him. 

“Yes, I was a little busy telling Diane I couldn’t murder her father tonight Doug,” Tommy responds with an air of hubris. 

Tommy moves to sit on their lumpy couch, pulling out a paperback from his back pocket to read, while Doug proceeds to grab a box of leftover pizza from the fridge. 

Just as Tommy reached the end of the page he was on, their phone rang. Both boys looked up and shared a look. The apartment and phone were their father’s. While they live there, neither one of them could call it home. It was highly unlikely it would be ringing for either of them. 

With a sigh, Doug shallowed his beat and walked over to the ringing phone attached to the wall. 

“Hello!” Doug loudly replied into the phone in classic McQuaid fashion. In response to hearing his brother’s jubilant greeting, Tommy grinned down at his book before turning the page. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course, Boss…. Yeah, we can meet you at the chapel…. See you then… Bye.” 

Tommy looked up to his brother to find him staring at him, “Boss?”

“Yeah,” replied Doug, “Did you give him our number?”

“Nope,” Tommy responded stressing the P so it popped. 

“Yeah, me neither, I thought he just had our pagers…” wondered Doug out loud.

“Not surprising really… he has his fingers in everything,” replied Tommy.

“True. He wants to meet us at the Chapel,” stated the older McQuaid.

Tommy raised an eyebrow, “Now?”

“Yeah, said he wanted to get this done.”

“Okay, then let’s go,” Tommy said in response while earmarking his page and throwing it onto the couch. He grabbed his keys and walked out their door. 

Half an hour later, found the McQuaid Brothers standing outside their trusted safe house. They walked up the stairs into the empty relic to find Fuller lounging on some fold-out chairs neither McQuaid was sure had been there before today. 

Walking up to Fuller, the brothers found some other chairs waiting for them. Sitting down, Doug started, “So, you wanted to see us, Boss?”

“Yes. This little project has tapped me out of favors for a while. This is oblique stuff, guys. We’re talking between the lines here. First things first, I should let you know that Nelson is just not any cop. He is the head of the Administration department.” Fuller shares a stare with the brothers, before continuing on, “Four years ago, Nelson’s wife died. There were a bunch of domestic disturbance calls after that. All quashed by Nelson. They were supposed to go to family court, but that got canceled. The court case was about truancy by Diane Nelson.”

“That the girl?” asks Fuller for confirmation.

Tommy bites his bottom lip and nods. 

“A little while after that the girl, Diane, ran away from home and lived with her Aunt for a while,” continued Fuller, “She’s obviously back at home with Nelson now.”

“I don’t get it,” replies Doug, “What does all that mean…?”

“I think I know,” says Tommy sharing a look with Fuller. 

“I think this is a case of sexual abuse,” states their Boss.

Tommy shakes his head and looks over at his brother, “And this guy is a cop…”

“Maybe you should whack him. Maybe I’ll do it for you,” Doug says in response to this revelation. 

“Could we be wrong?” asks Tommy carefully to the two guys in the room.

“If we are, we are. You need to confirm this with Diane. Think you can get her to tell her?” Fuller says in response. 

“I can get this done,” Tommy promised, “She might hate me when I’m through, but I’ll get her to talk.” 

All three stood up then. Fuller shook hands with the boys and clapped their backs.

“Good luck Tommy,” said Fuller in goodbye as he watched Tommy walk the door with his brother not far behind him. 

It was just after 5 pm that same Thursday. Tommy had found himself in a grocery store just down the block from the upper-middle-class house that Diane lived at, he had found the address in the file of intel Fuller had passed him before leaving the Chapel.

He could see the girl walk around the store with a large cart through the window of the store. He had followed her over half an hour ago to the store. He had purposely waited till she had an almost full cart before approaching. He quickly walked and located Diane on one of the last aisles grabbing bread. 

Walking up to her cart, Tommy starts off by saying, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Diane relies in surprise to see Tommy anywhere other than West Union High.

“You don’t have any groceries,” she points out. 

“No, I followed you here. I want to talk to you,” he says calmly.

“You haven’t changed your mind?” she asks both too exhausted and hopeful to hear his answer.

“Diane, I’m not who you think I am,” he explains.

“I was at West Union to buy some drugs,” he says continuing.

“I know that,” she says with a smile looking away to see what cereal was on sale. 

“No, I’m a kid fresh from juvie looking to pay some debts and walk away from my own shitty father.” 

She looks to him with questions in her eyes.

“I used a connection of mine to find out about your father. I know who he is. I want to talk to you about him,” Tommy continues. 

“All this was all to get to my father?” she responds in confusion. 

“You came to me. You asked me to kill him,” Tommy says harshly in response.

“We got information about this – records, the word of informants. We know what is going on,” he says explaining the situation further to the girl in front of him as she looks away searching for something else to look at. 

“Nothing is going on. It was all a mistake,” she argues back at Tommy. 

“Diane! Look at me. I want to help you,” he says standing in front of her grocery cart staring into her eyes, “But you have to help me.”

“I don’t want your help anymore,” she replies angrily.

She worriedly looks around the store, before staring right back at Tommy and asking, “Am I in trouble… you didn’t do anything?”

“Diane, he touches you, doesn’t he? You wanted to kill him because he sexually abuses you,” Tommy states.

Tommy continues to speculate on her life, “He probably has for years. Probably since your mother passed, maybe even before then.” 

Diane looks at Tommy in shock at his words as they sink into her brain. Tommy knows from the look in her eye he has crossed a line. 

Diane with resentment in her eyes tells Tommy, “You never knew my mother. How can you talk about my mother?” 

“What do you want?” she says shaking her cart and, in the process, shaking the boy holding her cart routed in place. 

“I want to help you. Diane, if this is happening, I can protect you. I can get you out of there,” Tommy answers.

“He would just get me back,” Diane replies, “I’ve tried everything. No one will believe me. I even tried calling the cops in the beginning. Twice. It didn’t work.” 

“This time is different,” Tommy retorts, “I’m not some beat cop that just shows up. I believe you Diane. I… I get how this is,” as Tommy finishes his sentence he looks away from Diane. 

Still looking away from the Bambi eyed girl in front of him, Tommy continues in an eerily calm tone, “I wasn’t lying when I said I’d seen it all before Diane.” 

Diane stares at the teenage boy in front of her wondering if he could actually saying he understands this the way he is…

“Look,” Diane says, “I have to go, I will be late getting home.” She had a note of fear in her voice Tommy noticed.

Tommy sighs before, looking up to meet Diane’s gaze, “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“What do you mean…?” Diane asks.

“I mean, that I want to protect you, Diane. Go out with me tomorrow night. We can really talk. You can decide if you want my help once and for all.”

With a curious look, Diane questions Tommy, “Why are you doing this?”

Pushing a loose curl behind her ear that hand fallen from her perfectly coifed ponytail, Tommy answered her, “Because I wish someone could have been there for me.”

With a weak voice, Diane responds, “Okay, give me a ride after school?” 

He nods before turning around. With a sad smile, Tommy leaves Diane to finish her shopping.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read my story. If you have any critiques please let me know down in the comments below.


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